Sunday, August 31, 2014

Anyone who loves books can’t possibly be expected to name only ten books
that are particularly significant to them. Most of us who’ve done this
challenge tend to list the ones that first come to mind. Given some time, we
could come up with many more. The fact that these particular ones came to mind
first though is also telling.

I tagged a couple of
author friends who I greatly admire because I wanted to know the books that
they found significant, the books that helped mold them into who they are (Josi Kilpack and Luisa Perkins). What a great way to peek into someone’s make-up and
find some new books!

After I made my list, I
really wanted to add why all of these books are significant to me, but that’s
too much for a FB post. Predicaments such as this are why I have a blog.

My books (not in any particular order)

1. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

When
I was in the 8th grade, my junior high was still doing those classroom book
order forms. I’d heard of the book To Kill a Mockingbird, but I didn’t know
anything about it. I just knew it was considered a classic and it had an
intriguing title, so I ordered it. My copy had the yellow cover with red block lettering. It was a seminal moment for me because it was the
first (what I considered) adult book I voluntarily read and it was the first time I realized a book
could be about more than one thing. Yes, it’s about the trial, but it’s about
so much more.

2. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green

I’m
not a big YA reader, but if one catches my attention, I’ll give it a shot. A lot
of my friends who are YA enthusiasts had talked about this one, and to be
honest, the cover and title were intriguing, so I tried it. Okay, confession
time, I’m a sucker for quirky romances. For Love of the Game is one of my
favorite movies, because it’s a love story disguised as a baseball movie. A
book doesn’t have to have a happy ending for me to love it. All it has to do is
move me in some way, and this one does just that.

3. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

Growing
up, I never read SciFi or Fantasy. I read plenty, but those genres didn’t
interest me. As an adult, I finally read Ender’s Game, based on the
recommendation of my wife. I’m now a freelance editor working primarily in
SciFi and Fantasy. Ender’s Game was a gateway novel for me (followed immediately
by Enchantment, also OSC).

4. Mistborn: The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson

Had
I never read Ender’s Game, I would have never read the Mistborn series. I love the magic
system, it’s so unique and creates scenes that I’ve yet to see equaled. The MC,
Vin, is a strong, smart, sassy girl who grows into an amazing woman. I really
connected with her. One of my reservations about reading Fantasy was the sheer
amount of pages. How could someone create and then maintain a compelling story
over eight hundred pages (in just one book)? Brandon showed me how.

5. Wild Seed - Octavia Butler

Octavia
Butler is unique among writers. She is one of the few African-American female
science fiction writers. Another story of a unique female main character, both
Octavia and the MC, Anyanwu. I love
her defiance to Doro and her commitment to family. I love her spirit across
different lands and times. I love her devotion to family, and I love the
fantasy magic elements: Doro’s ability to posses other bodies. Anyanwu’s shape-shifting
and healing abilities. The book gives a fascinating look into colonial life and
plantation slavery, examining themes of control, freedom, family, and hope.

6. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Because
Henry can be yanked out of any moment and thrust into any other moment in time, the book is
written in a similar construct. It is not sequential. It’s unlike any other
novel I’ve ever read and it works. And it’s a deep passionate quirky love
story. The main characters are faced with an existence none of us could
possibly experience, but it also says, if they could do it, so can we. On a
side note, it also has one of my favorite movie scores.

7. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years - Donald Miller

This
one is non-fiction. It espouses the idea that we need conflict in our lives,
that we are the main character of our own life. We seek out conflict in our
entertainment—it’s at the core of our favorite movies and books, but in our own
world we try to avoid it and bemoan our state when confronted with it. Donald
Miller says, hey, conflict makes for a great story and a great life. Every
great story has conflict, struggle, and triumph. God is the author and we are
the characters, and he has written a story for each of us. Every book has
difficult scenes, but those aren’t the entire story, just a few chapters. Our
story can be so much greater and fulfilling if we trust in His story-making
abilities.

8. Blood Bound - Rachel Vincent

This
is a three book series. I love each of them, but Blood Bound is the first book.
It is Urban Fantasy and has a very cool magic system that exists in our
world—not a far off fantasy world, but right here on Earth in our modern time. The plot is deliciously complicated but not confusing. An ongoing theme is free will and how we are figuratively and literally bound
by our choices.

9. The Gingerbread Girl - Stephen King

It
wasn’t until I read On Writing by Stephen King that I realized he isn’t just a
horror writer. He is a writer—period. Many people don’t realize the scope of
his work, until you mention The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile and they
tell you how much they love those movies. The Gingerbread Girl is from one of
his anthologies. I have it on Kindle and audio and I’ve listened to it probably
half a dozen times. The characters are so strong, but especially the voice of
the main character and how she sees the world, how she deals with her grief,
and comes to accept it. Stephen King deftly weaves backstory and flashback into
a novella without distracting the reader or affecting the pace.

10. Suspect - Robert Crais

Opening scene. A squad of Marines in the Middle East. Part of their squadron is a German Shepard. The scene is told from the perspective of the dog. It’s amazing.

I
had to add one more:

11. Drawing Out the Dragons - James Artimus Owen

This
is also non-fiction. It’s essentially a memoir and there are two things that
stand out for me: a) never give up what you want most for what you want most at
the moment and, as an extension of that idea, b) never give up, not even when
things are so bad that no one would blame you if you walked away. When I think
of what he endured and overcame to make his dream a reality and compare his
life to mine, I have no excuses. I have it on my phone so I can read it any
time I want or need to.

Honorable Mention: The Shining - Stephen KingThe first book that actually scared me while reading it.

So
there you go. That’s my initial list. Any of these resonate with you? What are
some of your favs and why?